DIY Garden Projects

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend! Ours was busy with a race, a wedding, and a lot of work for me. We are ready for a weekend now...

Speaking of work, we've been busy working on some garden projects over the last few weeks, so I thought I'd show you a couple of them. First, we have a strawberry patch, which all grew from one strawberry plant we transplanted years ago. The problem is we have only gotten a handful of berries over all the years it's been growing, because the birds and squirrels eat them all. This year, we plan to change that!

We used four hula-hoops from the dollar store, some bamboo stakes, some ground hooks, and a package of netting. Thing One helped me take the ribbon off the hula-hoops, then we took them apart to create four u-shaped tubes.

The bamboo stakes were originally 6 feet long. I cut them into 6 to 8-inch pieces and used a rubber mallet to pound them into the ground; leaving about 3 inches above ground. We put the hula-hoop ends over the bamboo to hold them in place.

We spaced the hoops out across the garden bed.

Then we stretched the net over the hoops and attached them with the double sided velcro strips (which come with the netting).

To secure the bottom we used more pieces of the bamboo and some ground hooks we had, but u-pins would work as well. To pick the berries, we will just lift up the bamboo stakes (the ones laying down, holding the net against the ground). Then we will have access to the whole patch from one side.

 Ta-da! I'm so excited to actually get to eat some of the strawberries this year...we'll see.

We are also trying snow peas and sugar snap peas in pots this year. I turned tomato cages upside down and tied them at the top with twine to create a trellis for them. 

So far it's working great! We are experimenting with carrots in a container too. We are also trying to grow eggplant and artichokes for the first time. Lots of trying new things this year. Hopefully we will have good results to report. I'll keep you posted. 

What are you growing this year? Are you trying any new plants or new methods? Any easy DIY projects? It's been a very busy few weeks of planting and working, but it feels really good to finally have everything in the ground. Now we just wait for the good stuff. Happy gardening!

Thanks for reading!

-Haley